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Topic: Celebration VI (Read 14016 times)

I was a little bummed by the overall small showing at C6, but I guess that might reflect the more conservative approach Hasbro claims to be taking. I am looking forward to Toy Fair, since that event seems to consistently have an abundance of new toys shown.

It was nice to see Wave 2 of the Droid Factory line, but overall the first two waves are a little disappointing. The only brand new characters are two of the Build-A-Droid figures. The selection is decent, yet pales in comparison to some of the more recent waves of TVC. Rex and Mara Jade look cool, but Mace and the Clone Pilot are useless and it seems too soon for Biggs, Ceremony Luke, and another Vader and A-Wing pilot. Perhaps I'll feel differently upon seeing the figures in-person, but right now I'm not impressed.

As for the other new stuff, I really like the direction the Class 1 vehicles are going in. The Dropship and AT-RT sets look great, and Yoda's JSF looks like fun. It seems like a better value, and having an "enemy" packed with each vehicle should keep things more exciting for kids. Hopefully some sets with three figures and a larger than normal accessory will be worked into the assortment. I will happily pass on the new Class II vehicles, but as long as Hasbro keeps getting normal vehicles out via exclusives I won't complain about the new ones. I understand what Hasbro is going for, and hopefully they are successful.

I'm busy with work this weekend and so Jeff's largely been on his own till evenings when I'm home to do photo editing for him... His first Hasbro gallery is going up here soon though. Uploading as we speak...

Hopefully new stuff later but probably tomorrow, so stay tuned. I've got work and it's 9 here so I won't be up all night doing photoshopping. Sorry.

Spent last night locked in volunteering at my kid's football game since half the people who agreed to didn't show up to do their work.

As I tweeted earlier, the Class I and Class II are both being targeted at $20. Essentially the Class I are the new BPs, but with two figs and a ship instead of three figures.

Oh, and the first half of the Hasbro pics are live, still working on the rest. I will say that Celebration was a lot easier to cover when it was in Indy and there was nothing else to do at night but upload pics. I did have a nice time at Downtown Disney tonight though!

With the lack of anything interesting coming out of C6, I have to say that I now consider this the lowest point this hobby has reached since 1995. Spring of 2003, when there were no figures for 6 months was close, but, to me, this is the lowest low.

Clone Wars seems dead, and we may never see many of the cool crazy designs from the later seasons. I'm just not buying anymore resculpts.

Vehicles, aside from the Naboo Fighter, to me, are dead as well. I'm not buying smaller, less accurate sculpts. (I do think these look like good toys, and kids will like them.)

As far as figures, I no longer collect one of each, and now that they are so hard to come by I've lost track of what's even out there. There seems to be a few nice figures in the first Droid Factory wave, and maybe 1 in wave 2, so I'm not buying them for the droids. I just can't make it financially justifiable in my head.

Anyone who knows me knows that I love this stuff, and for many years lived and breathed it. But now, I don't know...there is literally nothing to get excited about.

Overall, nothing too exciting, but about what I expected I guess for the most part. Through SDCC and C6, we've gotten to see the first two waves of Droid Factory (making up 20 of the "30 plus" figures for 2013). I'm curious how much will be left for the rest of the year. If there's only another two waves or so, they are definitely scaling back - which I guess I'm ok with.

As far as the figures for Droid Factory themselves....they all look well done, no problems there, but as others have said not necessarily anything all that exciting. I'm still trying to decide if I'm wanting the Build a Droids bad enough to buy entire waves (as I have been with vintage), or if I could start skipping more. If there is only 30-35 figures for the whole year, it isn't necessarily a big hit either way, but honestly I don't care too much about new clones, etc. with the focus on AOTC next year. I'm happy with the new OT stuff, and Mara Jade and Rex look cool too. Of course, the exclusives we heard about at SDCC (speeder bike, etc.) are great too.

For Clone Wars, I honestly thought we'd see a little more...or at least a little more new. I guess the Obi-Wan, Anakin, etc. are "new versions", but I really don't care. I just re-watched the "Bounty" episode this week and starting wishing for the new outfit Boba, Dengar, new outfit Asaaj, the other hunters...but I'm wondering if they'll ever get to that stuff. Now there is news of them slowly transitioning to POTF2 type articulation. It seems like this line is limping into the sunset now.

Movie Heroes...didn't care this year, and likely won't care about much next year either. I'll probably pick up that BFG Sandtrooper just for fun (like the light up Vader), and anything else along those lines. Honestly, if we have to have this line, I'd just as soon they make it considerably cheaper and make the figures like the lower articulated battle pack figures. Solid figures that can stand and hold their weapons for kids.

The "mini rig" vehicles are pretty neato, and the fact that they are including movie stuff in that line now has me excited for what we might see come the time of the OT's 3D releases. As for the down scaled mid size line, I'm actually ok with it. I can see that most of us won't care about these or pick them up, but I appreciate the attempt to get back to a $20 price and have a solid toy for kids. The AOTC era Slave I (not the BMF version) was junk (at least the one I had), and falls apart constantly. My nephews (and now our daughter) plays with this one as Boba's ship, and the wings constantly fall off. Having a smaller, solid version is fine with me. Plus, most collectors have (or have the means to find) the larger versions of these ships already, so it doesn't too much matter to me if they do downscaled versions for the kids, especially if it gets prices in line a bit more.

Overall, nothing too exciting, but at least a little bit of news. It really seems like there is a scaling back for next year, and that might not be a bad thing. I look back at this year, and it really had to be a disaster for Hasbro. All three lines pretty much sat all year long, and aside from the 2003 drought that was mentioned somewhere, I can't remember it ever being this bad. I honestly didn't see anything aside from a handful of figures beyond that TPM wave (and it is still that way). Thank goodness for online ordering I guess. I hope they get things figured out next year and beyond, and this new conservative approach brings SW "back". Oh, glad to see the ESB Slave I "tease" too, too bad they couldn't have just shown it. I'm guessing a TRU vintage boxed exclusive or something? Oh, I also noticed in some Q and A's that the "Yoda look" is supposed to last "about 6 months", so I'm wondering if those rumors of an AOTC release in Feb and ROTS in the Fall might be true and we'll see another cardback shift later in the year. Who knows.

Oh, I also noticed in some Q and A's that the "Yoda look" is supposed to last "about 6 months", so I'm wondering if those rumors of an AOTC release in Feb and ROTS in the Fall might be true and we'll see another cardback shift later in the year. Who knows.

Actually, there were LOTS of rumors going around the C-VI floor that ROTS 3D would happen a LOT sooner than "Fall". Like, 4-5 weeks aftre AOTC 3D (think Feb and then April, right before the early summer blockbusters hit).

Again, all rumor for right now, but I heard it a lot from various folks... grain of salt and all that.

That'd be fine by me... I would almost rather they breezed through stuff than drug it out a year at a time. It's clearly not got the legs it had when it was new and dragging it out like you're supposed to be anticipating something great is just not a good idea IMO.

Agreed. I think this is a great idea - but they could also wait until this time next year (end of August) for the 3D re-release of ROTS too and I think it might actually do well - there really isn't much out right now unless you want to go see something like Avengers or Dark Knight again...

I wonder who will be on the packaging for the ROTS 3D stuff...

Logged

Peter

Letting my collecting OCD get the better of me on a DAILY basis... and loving EVERY minute of it!